


Multilingual

by TheBattyQueen



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Legend's pride is strong, Multilingual Character, Multilingual Legend, Multilingual Wild, Rip Legends Pride, Wild's inability to be consistent is stronger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:53:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22551298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBattyQueen/pseuds/TheBattyQueen
Summary: Legend prides himself on being Multilingual and after meeting the rest of the Links made a point to learn how many languages each one of them could speak. The only issue was Wild.
Comments: 20
Kudos: 378





	Multilingual

**Author's Note:**

> so quick note I know that languages change over time but lets just say that if a Link knows a language in their own Hyrule they know it in every Hyrule and can learn a language in a different Hyrule and they will know it now in their own Hyrule.

Legend prided himself on being able to speak quite a few languages and yes, he liked to show off this skill whenever he could. So what if he used magic to learn some of the languages, he knew them now and that had saved his life a few times. He thought it was better to be known as multilingual than to hide this fact, mostly so if he overheard a plot against him or Zelda people would believe him because they knew that he spoke many languages. He also knew that he wasn’t fluent in most of the languages he knew but to be fluent he would have to speak the language a lot and he didn’t have that sort of time. Now that said he also liked to know how many languages the others spoke just so he wasn’t caught off guard if they started speaking another language. So far he had learned that Time could speak four languages including one that Legend didn’t know from his time in Termina. Twilight only knew Hylian and some Twili but admitted that Midna had translated for most of their quest together. Warriors spoke four languages, only two fluently and two that were mostly used for diplomatic reasons. Wind, Sky, and Hyrule could only speak Hylian and knew some words in other languages but not enough to really communicate. Four could speak three languages but was only fluent in Hylian and Minish and could hold a basic conversation in Gerudo. But then there was Wild who Legend could not for the life of him figure out if Wild was passable in six or more languages or fluent in six or more languages. Wild would sometimes stop and think for way too long about what word to use but he would also use a word from another language while speaking in Hylian. It was frustrating to Legend because the Wild never used any Language enough for him to be absolutely sure that Wild was fluent and this included Hylian for the first two months of their journey together. So Legend had a list of all the times Wild used another language and which one it was because Legend still wasn’t sure how many languages Wild spoke after over six months of traveling together. There were a lot of entries. But Legend had narrowed it down to seven incidents that gave the most information about Wild’s fluently in different languages.

The first incident was from before Legend was positive that Wild was fluent in Hylian and had thought that maybe Wild spoke Sheikah fluently and only spoke Hylian with them because they all spoke it. It had been a month and a half of traveling together and they were all mostly comfortable with traveling together when they stopped to get some ingredients for dinner. Wild was talking with a young woman selling fresh churned butter and had suddenly called him over. At first Legend had thought that Wild wanted help with bargaining because he was awful at it but instead Wild had asked him for a word.

“Legend what is the word for gems you buy stuff with, I forgot.” Legend honestly thought his brain had broken for a few moments before he got out ‘rupees?’ And Wild had hit his head and turned back to the woman and asked her how many rupees for the butter. Legend had just stood there as Wild bought quite a bit of butter and turned back to him. “Thanks for that for some reason I could not remember the Hylian word I knew the Sheikah one and the Goron one but not the Hylian one.” Wild then walked off leaving Legend surprised at the fact that Wild apparently knew three languages and was part of the reason he had thought that Wild wasn’t fluent in Hylian for a while.

The second incident was after Legend knew that Wild was fluent in Hylian but when he still thought that Wild only knew three languages and had been part of the reason Legend started the list. It had been a quiet day a few of the others were out fishing while Wild was banned from helping after they found out how he liked to fish. Legend had also decided against fishing because Time and Twilight had tried to get Wild to use a fishing pole and it had led to a conversation about bait that had lasted hours, only stopping when the two had noticed that Wild wasn’t listening to them. Legend had been turned off fishing after that and had decided instead to give Wild a cookbook of his favorite recipes that he had encountered on his travels. Wild had been eager to try some of them, and after getting the ingredients for a few had decided to make them for dinner that night. Legend was translating, as he had written them down in the languages of the country or kingdom he had discovered them in, while Wild prepped the food. Wild had been speaking Hylian one second before pausing and asking a question in Gerudo. It had thrown Legend for a loop but he realized that giving the instructions in Gerudo would actually be easier than giving them in Hylian so he ran with it. The whole process went a lot smoother when he didn’t have to use three words to explain the cut that was needed or how to properly heat the dish because Gerudo had words for all of that. It even had words that meant cut with this specific knife which made it easier to get out what type of cut was needed for the dish. They ended up having a basic conversation about the other Links in Gerudo until some of the others returned from fishing. Wild collected the fish to store them in his slate for tomorrow while continuing to talk to Legend in Gerudo. Eventually Wind asked what they were speaking in and Wild stopped talking and stood blinking, blank faced before saying that he had no idea. Legend answered that they had been speaking Gerudo but it made him realize that Wild hadn’t realized that he had switched languages two hours ago and that made Legend suspicious.

The third incident was one of the weirder ones Legend now knew that Wild could speak Hylian, Sheikah, Gerudo, and Goron and he was definitely fluent in Hylian and maybe Sheikah and Gerudo but he had not heard Wild speak Goron yet so it could just be a few words. They were in Winds Hyrule at Dragon roost with the Rito and one little girl was having a meltdown crying in Rito and none of them spoke Rito. The Rito only existed in Wind and Wild’s Hyrules and Wind didn’t speak the language, so they were looking around for someone to help them when Wild crouched down to talk to her in the Rito language. Whatever he said it got the girl to calm down to sniffling cries and he continued. None of the group knew what he was saying but the little girl started giggling at something Wild said and then let out a trilling whistle before starting to sing Wild clapped along and an older Rito woman came running up in a panic but relaxed when she saw the little girl. The woman said something to Wild who answered and she let out a laugh before picking up the girl and presumably saying good bye while the girl waved to Wild. 

“What was that about?” Time asked Wild as he stood back up.

“Oh, she couldn’t find her mother and couldn’t remember how to call her, so I just asked some questions that helped her remember.” Wild brushed off his pants and stretched as he stood up, “I also acted a bit silly to cheer her up, you know basic keeping kids happy stuff.” Wind piped up.

“I didn’t know you could speak Rito.” Wild blinked and looked confused for a brief moment before realizing that he had indeed been speaking the language of the Rito.

“Oh, I guess I never realized that I switched languages.” He scratched the back of his neck as he chuckled. “But yeah the Rito village was an important stop on my journey because I had to free Vah Medoh and to do that I had to work with the Rito.” Most of the group accepted this as the reason Wild could speak Rito but Legend was torn, clearly Wild was able to speak Rito before he started his quest. It really just brought up more questions as to how many languages Wild could speak.

The fourth incident was not the worst one but was where Legend could definitely say that Wild was fluent in Sheikah. They were in Warriors’ Hyrule dealing with nobles who were honestly the worst part of any royal event. The ones that never left Hyrule but pretended to be worldly because they imported their clothes and accessories from somewhere ‘exotic’. Warriors had moved to talk with some military leaders from other kingdoms and Time had joined him after being asked about his tattoos for the tenth time. Wind and Four had run off to hang out with the younger kids, truly using their size to get away from nobles trying to marry off one of their kids to a strong warrior. Twilight had grabbed Hyrule and started talking to a noble whose family owned a number of farms and had an interest in learning how to better run them. That left Legend to keep an eye on Wild which was easier said than done because Wild was very good at stealth and had somehow slipped off when Twilight had made the decision that keeping track of Hyrule was easier than keeping track of Wild and claimed him. Cursing Twilight under his breath in a language he knew that no one here would know, Legend made his way through the crowd looking for the lost champion. After a few minutes he spotted Wild being stopped by a few giggling Noble girls who were clearly attracted to him. Wild got a wide eyed look and then said something about not understanding them in Sheikah. When the young woman said they didn’t understand Sheikah, Wild just continued to speak in Sheikah saying that he didn’t speak much Hylian. Legend started to move to save the poor guy who was clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation when a woman with white hair moved in and shooed the Noble women off. Impa in this Hyrule was a strong warrior and General of the army so the women left as she glared at them. Wild sighed in relief and thanked the General in Sheikah which she responded to and the two began talking, still in Sheikah. Wild admitted that he could speak Hylian but often used the fact that he spoke Sheikah to pretend he didn’t, which caused the general to laugh and admit that she wished she could do that sometimes at these events. It wasn’t often that Legend got to hear two people speak in Sheikah, which he enjoyed as it was a beautiful language. So Legend leaned back against the wall and listened to the two talk about a very vast array of topics. From military training to espionage to cooking to for some reason the proper way to debone a fish. The only thing Legend really got out of the conversation was that Wild was fluent in Sheikah and using a Sheikah made knife to debone a fish was both the best idea and complete overkill. Legend was not surprised that Wild was indeed fluent in Sheikah, he was, however, surprised that deboning a fish could be such a strongly debated topic.

The fifth incident was another weird one and honestly the only reason Legend had written it down was because it confirmed that Wild spoke Zora and that apparently Wild could and would fight a monster twice his size with nothing but a stick. They were in Twilight’s Hyrule and had come out near Zora’s domain. The Zora had greeted them kindly while Legend and Hyrule were on edge, these Zora seemed a lot nicer than those from their Hyrules so they started to relax. The group found that this was one of those time when they got to have down time so Legend decided that it would be a good time to learn more about Zora grammar, it was absurd they had 8 different ways of saying ‘I’, four per gender and if you used the wrong one you were being insulting. After a few hours as the group relaxed a few children ran up babbling in Zora and the only word Legend was able to catch was monster. Time knelt down and tried to get information from the kids but it was clear that Time was either not fluent enough in the language or the kids were talking too fast for him. Wild, on the other hand, listened to what was being said before saying that it sounded like a Moblin from his Hyrule and running off in the direction the kids had come from. Legend races forward to keep up with the young man and found him crouched behind a rock while a giant gangly blue monster with a pig snout holding a club studded with bones moved around a clearing. Wild reached down and picked up a stick before muttering something in Zora that Legend didn’t understand.

“Wild I didn’t catch that it was in Zora and I only know a few words.” More muttering in Zora followed and legend gave up Wild was in one of his fighting moods and nothing would get through to him. Wild picked up a rock and tossed it across the clearing where it made a noise causing the monster to amble over to the sound and look down trying to find the source of the noise. While it was distracted Wild crept across the clearing holding his stick and landed a heavy blow to the monster with the stick sending it crashing to the ground he then hit it a few more times before the stick shattered and Wild dove for the monsters club, which it had dropped when it was knocked to the ground. A few hits with the club and the monster fell to the ground dead leaving Wild holding the monsters club breathing a bit heavier. “Okay I know you have a sword in your slate why did you use a stick.” Wild looked at him as though he hadn’t noticed that he had been there the entire time. Wild said something in Zora and Legend just groaned. “That was Zora, I think, so I didn’t catch that as I do not speak that language.” Wild blinked before letting off a quiet chuckle.

“Sorry forgot what language I was speaking for a bit.” Wild looked at the club for a second before throwing it at a tree where it shattered. “I haven’t been able to fight a Moblin like that for a while, it’s fun.” Legend just dropped his head into his hands, of course Wild would find attacking a strong monster with a stick fun. “Relax, that is the second weakest color of Moblin in my Hyrule I would have just used sticks if it was a red one.” Legend just groaned, glad that Twilight was the person who usually rangeled Wild because it was not fun for him. Well, at least he knew that Wild was maybe fluent in Zora, so he got something out of this adventure.

The sixth incident was just enough to make Legend question his decision that Wild was fluent in Hylian but also make him question if Wild was fluent in six languages at his relatively young age. They were in Time’s Hyrule with the Gorons and Wild was looking at the gems they had for sale and comparing the prices with those in his Hyrule. The only difference between Wild and the rest of the group was that Wild had been speaking Goron the entire time. Legend now had two languages on Wild’s definitely fluent list and four on the maybe fluent list and he was seriously considering moving Gerudo to the definite list after Wild got mad at Wind for a prank and only spoke Gerudo to him for the rest of the day. What was happening right now, however, was very confusing because it was actually easier to do the transaction itself in Hylian because you could just ask for a ruby not have to figure out which of the three words for ruby to use when asking for it. There had also been a discussion about the clarity of a diamond and Wild had used the Goron phrase for water which was three words that directly translated to cool clear lava and that took a lot longer to say than water in Hylian or any other language. Why Wild would stick with a harder language was escaping Legends mind and also driving him kind of crazy. Was this Wild showing off or was he so used to speaking Goron that he didn’t realize he was doing it. In the end all this incident did was confuse Legend even more about how many languages Wild was fluent in because he was quite possibly fluent in six languages which would explain a lot but Wild was also only about 18, mentally, so he would have had to be speaking six language since early childhood to be fluent in all six. Nothing made sense and Legend was almost ready to suck up his pride and ask Wild how many languages he knew just for his own mental health but he wasn’t quite there yet. But then again, hearing Wild string a bunch of words together to say something that was only one word in Hylian made Legend reconsider how important his pride really was.

The seventh incident wasn’t really one incident it was several that were very short and Legend only thought back to them after the last one that would become known as the moment Legends pride became less important than his mental health. The incidents were all about swearing and the fact that Wild was apparently the most foul mouthed of the group but only when he was frustrated and what language he used to swear was later determined to depend on how frustrated he was because some languages had better swears for certain situations than others. 

The first mini incident happened fairly soon after the group came together, when Legend still thought that Wild only knew Hylian and Sheikah and he wasn’t sure if Wild was really fluent in either language. In Legend’s defense Wild mostly signed at the time and refused to say more than six words at a time. They had been trying to figure out where they were but the town they were in was very unhelpful, it was later determined to be Hyrule’s Hyrule and the amount of monsters was very high and the villagers were just trying to stay safe but it set Wild off on a profanity laden rant about how people only looking out for themselves lead to people dying unnecessarily. He practically screamed that if they felt so unsafe to just have a guard point a sword or bow and arrow at them to make sure they really felt safe. That incident was a tick in the fluent in Hylian box for Legend because Wild didn’t repeat a single swear word the entire five minute rant. 

The Second mini incident involved the Rito Language and the only reason legend knew that Wild was swearing was because he got called out on it by a teen Rito. And by called out, Legend meant the Rito teen asked Wild if he would teach him some swear words after Wild finished his rant and Wild had confessed that he was complaining about the cold as it was not cold enough for his warmer clothes but too cold for his lighter stuff. Legend was more impressed that a teenager wanted to be taught by Wild because that meant Wild knew some impressive swears that were typically kept away from children and teens.

The third mini incident was when Legend knew that Wild spoke Sheikah and was fairly certain that he was fluent in the language. It was the event that made him move Sheikah from the may be fluent to the definitely fluent list. Just after the event in Warriors Hyrule but before they left, Wild had been training with Warriors’ troops when Impa had begun ranting in Sheikah about the troops work ethic and Wild had joined in after having to force two recruits to run a mile in their armor. Now the Sheikah language does not have a lot of swears but apparently Warriors’ Impa and Wild were very creative with insulting people because Time looked shocked at the language coming out of the twos mouths and Legend had to struggle to keep a straight face while the two ranted together. Legend had left with a few new insults and Wild had left with a new friend in Impa. 

The fourth mini incident involved the Zora language and convinced legend that he would really learn the language because Time and Warriors both were blushing by the end of Wild’s meltdown. Wild had been upset about the fact that he still wasn’t allowed to use his favorite fishing method and had ranted in Zora for a bit about wanting to fish because the others couldn’t bring him the fish he wanted for a specific dish. It was a very eye opening rant which ended with Wild being allowed to fish, which was another story involving bombs, and Legend deciding to ask Time and Warriors to teach him Zora, he would ask Wild later when he was ready to learn how to swear in Zora because he knew that Time wouldn’t teach him. 

The fifth mini incident involved Goron which really didn’t have more than ten swear words but Wild apparently knew some phrases that were a lot worse than any swear word in the language. Wild had been mad at the group and had started ranting about money and how the rest of the group was too frugal. Legend decided after that that if Wild wanted to pay for something he would let him. Honestly after hearing Wild rant in Goron, Legend was starting to get nervous about hearing Wild swear in Gerudo which was much better for swearing rants. 

The sixth mini incident was indeed Wild going off in a swear laden rant in Gerudo. Now Legend was very open about the fact that he swore a lot but even he felt his cheeks burn as he listened to Wild rant. Time left the area and Legend could tell that everyone else was looking to him to figure out how bad it could be. Warriors clearly knew some Gerudo because about halfway through Wild’s rant he turned to stare at the young man with wide eyes. The less remembered about this incident the better and Wild had seemed a lot happier after his rant so Legend decided that it was better not to ask what had set the young man off due to the risk of making him mad again. 

The seventh mini incident was the one that made Legend remember all the times Wild had gone a some rants in other languages. They had gotten trapped in a Temple and were trying to figure out how to solve a puzzle to be able to get a key. This also just happened to be the moment that they learned that Wild had rarely had to use keys to get into rooms on his journey. It had been going well until they got to a room where they not only had to solve a puzzle to reopen the door they had come through but needed to get a key to unlock the door forward. The puzzle involved pushing blocks into a shape and was very easy to mess up causing them all to have to stand on a small platform to reset the room. After the seventh reset Wild lost it and let out a string of swears that included a few languages that Legend knew but he had no idea Wild knew them and a few that Legend didn’t know at all. Wild then climbed the wall and hung there directing everyone where to push the boxes because it turned out that a view from above made the whole box pushing puzzle a lot easier. Legend however wasn’t much help because he was one wrong push from going off on his own swearing rant because he had no idea how many languages Wild knew anymore. It was at that moment that he decided that his pride at being able to figure this out on his own was not worth it but he was not sure that Wild knew how many languages he was fluent due to how often he seemed surprised that he had switched languages. Legend would have to find someone to help him.

Because Legend had finally given up on figuring out how many languages Wild Was fluent in but wasn’t sure if Wild even knew how many languages he could speak. Legend began thinking about who would know this information and a few days after arriving in Wild’s Hyrule he figured it out. He could ask Wild’s Zelda, the young woman was always working either in deciphering ancient Sheikah text or working on those giant machines known as guardians so she would be easy to find and most likely knew how many languages Wild spoke. The Princess, though she told them not to call her that and just to call her Zelda, was working on one of the Guardians when he approached her. 

“Pr… Zelda can I ask you a question about Wild…Link?” Zelda had looked up and noticed Legend standing there, she stood up and hopped down from the opened shell of the machine she had been in and said.

“Yeah, what did you want to know?” Legend was still kind of surprised at how open the young woman was after spending 100 years fighting Ganon. Legend remembered that after being introduced to her she had peppered them with questions about their quests and asked all sorts of questions about their time periods. It had been an interesting afternoon and she had told them they were more than welcome to ask her any questions, so here he was, swallowing his pride and asking a question.

“Well I have been trying to figure out how many languages Wild is fluent in but I can’t tell and am not really sure if he knows either.” Zelda gave him an odd look before understanding crossed her face and she started to giggle. 

“Oh, Link is fluent in at least six languages, Hylian, Gerudo, Goron, Rito, Zora, and Sheikah.” She smiles at him before continuing. “He is learning a few languages from people coming into Hyrule and is learning them fast but I don’t think he is fluent in them yet.” Legend blinked and tried to figure out what that meant about how many languages Wild knew. “As for why Wild may not be sure he woke up in the shrine fluent in six languages with no memory of which was his first language so he tends to slip into whatever language fits the situation better.” Suddenly everything made sense Wild woke up fluent in six languages so he used whichever one worked with the situation he was in best. Legend often defaulted to Hylian or Lorulian because those were the two he used the most and were very similar, Hylian being his native language and Lorulian being a language he spoke with Ravio when they were alone. Wild didn’t know what his native language was so he would just jump around the six languages and use whichever one was best for what he was thinking or talking about.

“So he learned all these languages in the shrine?” Legend asked the Young woman who was still smiling at him causing her to get a contemplative look on her face.

“Hmm, No?” She tipped her head to the side as she thought “He could speak all six before being put in the shrine, I think he was fluent in a few of them.” Legend blinked it would make so much more sense if Wild learned all his languages with Sheikah Magic. “I think the shrine only made him fluent in all of them but he was fluent in a few before the shrine.” Zelda tapped her chin as she thought, “ now that I think about it the shrine might have also boosted his ability to learn languages, I’ll have to test that.” Legend was sure that the Princess was about to start ranting like he had seen her do a few times while she was questioning the group about their stories but then her face lit up and she said “Link could you come over here?” Legend looked up to see Wild walking towards them. “Do you remember what languages you knew before you went into the shrine?” Wild tipped his head to the side as he thought. “Because I know you were at least fluent in Sheikah, Gerudo, and Zora but I don’t know about the others.” 

“We spoke in Sheikah more than Hylian, I know that.” Wild started closing his eyes as he thought. “I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t fluent in Rito because my memories of Ravali have him speaking Hylian or Sheikah about half of the time and he always wanted everyone o know that he was saying so I must not have been fluent in Rito.” Zelda nodded.

“Yeah that makes sense, I don’t think you were fluent in Goron either because Daruk spoke Gerudo more often with us that Goron, so yeah.” Wild nodded before adding something that completely broke Legend’s brain.

“I don’t think I was fluent in Hylian either, most of my memories that involve talking are in Gerudo or Sheikah not Hylian and I do remember having to sit in a class having no clue what was going on when I was 14, I think?” Zelda nodded, her face suddenly lighting up.

“That’s right you had trouble with Hylian and honestly, I preferred to talk in Sheikah or Gerudo anyways, so when we got closer we mostly spoke those two.” Legend blinked as he processed the information he had just been given. “You were always better at the other five languages in Hyrule and preferred to use those.” Wild nodded and Zelda added, “You know, I think your first language was either Gerudo or Sheikah because you tended to default to those when talking a lot.” Legend raised his hands up to stop them and asked.

“Are you telling me that Wild has always been multilingual but Hylian was not one of those languages?” Both Wild and Zelda nodded before Wild added.

“I am not sure I spoke Hylian until after I pulled the Master Sword, now that I think about it.” Wild blinked as he thought about it “I definitely have recovered some childhood memories but none of them are in Hylian mostly Sheikah, Zora, and Gerudo but some are in Goron and Rito so yeah I must have still been learning Hylian when the calamity struck.” Legend wanted to scream but refrained at least he now knew how many languages Wild was fluent in. 

“So the shrine must have taught you those three languages to fluency while you were in it.” Zelda said with a look on her face that screamed I want to know more about this and when Legend looked at Wild, expecting a look of fear, instead saw a matching look on the young man's face. “Plus I think it might have enhanced your ability to learn languages because you have not had any trouble with the ones you are learning now.”

“Ohh, we will have to test that.” Wild sounded excited at the idea of testing his ability to learn languages and Legend decided that he had learned enough. At least now a good number of Wild’s oddities were explained. There was silence as the two natives to this Hyrule thought about what test they were going to do with Wild’s language learning ability and while Legend tried to figure out how to leave without seeming rude, when Wild suddenly remembered something. It was something that he had been planning on telling Zelda before he got asked about languages. “Oh, and Zelda I think that broken guardian over there has a working giant core but I need some help getting it out.” And there it was the proof that the rest of Wild’s oddities were being explained just by being in Wild’s Hyrule, Legend realized as he watched the Princess and her Knight head over to a broken Guardian and begin the process of taking it apart to get some working parts. In the end, that was one mystery about Wild solved and it only added like three new ones which was half as many as the last mystery they had solved about Wild had created so clearly the group was learning more about him.

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly don't think Wild was Fluent in Hylian Pre Calamity and that was partof the reason he was so quiet not just because he was under a lot of stress but also because he wasn't confident in his ability to speak. the Shrine made sure he was Fluent in all languages he would encounter and made it easier to learn a new language.


End file.
